Is this the face of Count Dracula? It is according to NBC, which announced Sunday that Jonathan Rhys Meyers will play the vampire in a drama series premiering this fall.NBC

Struggling NBC is looking for some major help from Emmy-winning prime-time veterans Michael J. Fox ("Family Ties"), Sean Hayes ("Will & Grace"), and James Spader ("Boston Legal"). Each has top billing in a series that the once-proud Peacock Network will introduce this fall.

Also among the six fall starters NBC announced Sunday is "Dracula," a drama starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers ("The Tudors'') as the vampire count posing as an American entrepreneur and finding the reincarnation of his dead wife in Victorian London. "Dracula" will stake its claim to the 10-11 p.m. Friday time slot, airing behind the returning fantasy drama "Grimm."

Although not on the fall lineup, NBC granted a surprise fifth season to "Community," the quirky comedy starring East Cleveland native Yvette Nicole Brown. It will return between January and next May.

Less surprising was the fifth season awarded "Parenthood," the acclaimed drama with Euclid High School graduate Monica Potter. It moves to 10 p.m. Thursdays this fall.

NBC is in a world of hurt in the closing stages of the 2012-13 television season, staggering along in fourth place behind network rivals CBS, Fox and ABC. And that pain isn't confined to the prime-time schedule.

NBC also is coping with public-relations disasters hurting the "Today" show and Jay Leno's "Tonight" show. Moving to stem the panic, NBC announced Sunday that Seth Meyers ("Saturday Night Live") would be the new "Late Night" host when Jimmy Fallon takes over the "Tonight" show next year.

A parade of familiar faces is another part of the NBC strategy for the 2013-14 season. Blair Underwood ("L.A. Law") has the title role in an updated version of "Ironside," the 1967-75 crime drama starring Raymond Burr as a detective left paralyzed from the waist down by a would-be assassin's bullet.

"Ironside," which gets the 10-11 Wednesday spot, is one of three rookie dramas NBC will field this fall, along with "Dracula" and "The Blacklist" (10-11 Monday), with Spader as a shady ex-government agent who offers to help catch a terrorist long thought dead.

The three fledgling fall comedies will air between "Parks and Recreation" and "Parenthood" on NBC's Thursday lineup: "Welcome to the Family" (8:30-9), a culture-clash sitcom with Mike O'Malley and Mary McCormack as a Los Angeles couple with new in-laws; "Sean Saves the World" (9-9:30), with executive producer Hayes as divorced gay dad juggling a career, offbeat employees and a pushy mom (Linda Lavin); and "The Michael J. Fox Show," about a New York newscaster who, like Fox, put his career on hold to cope with Parkinson's disease.

In addition to the fall series with Fox, Hayes, Spader and Underwood, NBC announced midseason shows starring Emmy winner Gillian Anderson ("The X-Files) and Emmy nominee Minnie Driver ("The Riches"), as well as film stars Parker Posey and John Malkovich. NBC has 11 midseason programs in the pipeline: three comedies, five dramas and three reality shows.

The midseason dramas are: "Believe," from producer-director J.J. Abrams ("Lost"), a series about a young girl with supernatural powers; "Chicago PD," with Jason Beghe and Jon Seda as Windy City cops; the Anderson-led "Crisis," about high school students kidnapped in Washington, D.C.; "Crossbones," a pirate vessel with Malkovich as the notorious Blackbeard; and "The Night Shift," set in a San Antonio hospital.

Abrams' fantasy-adventure drama "Revolution" will return for a second season this fall, as will "Chicago Fire." "Believe" and "Crisis" will get Sunday spots in January.

The three midseason comedies are: "About a Boy," producer Jason Katims' adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel about a man-child who bonds with the 11-year-old son of a need a needy single mom (Driver); "The Family Guide," with Posey as a divorced mom with an 11-year-old son named Henry (Jason Bateman narrates as the adult Henry); and "Undateable," with Chris D'Elia as a slacker inheriting a group of romantically challenged friends.

Pick-up decisions on the rookie drama "Hannibal" and "Celebrity Apprentice" will be in the next few weeks.

NBC also will premiere three new reality shows at midseason: "The Million Second Quiz," a trivia battle lasting 12 consecutive days and nights; "Food Fighters," with amateur cooks in culinary clashes with professional chefs; and "American Dream Builders," a competition for designers, builders, architects and landscapers.

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